Thursday, 20 May 2010

They come into office promising to be our servants, but soon the pressure of events, inertia of institutions and more powerful forces take over. They work for you, but they can’t read your mind and many others are also making demands. You need to get to know them, let them know what you want and show them how you can help them win bigger battles for a better society.

Now is the time for citizens, community groups and activists to connect with their elected representatives in the Town Hall and Parliament. All professional lobbyists, journalists, campaigners and interest groups will be doing the same, but constituents have one powerful advantage: the vote. Politicians are elected to represent you. Most want to do good for their constituents (it helps their career and gives them an independent base). If there are strong local feelings about an issue some politicians will even defy the party line to support their constituents.

Many years ago I was secretary of a community resources centre, in an old church hall near the centre of a Conservative-run town. We were seen as a hot-bed of radicals, hosting the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), Communist Party Jumble Sales, lesbian discos and a thriving punk rock scene. In fact, most of what we did was to support a flourishing mainstream community sector - printing neighbourhood news letters, providing meeting space and encouraging self-help groups across town. Then one day a newly elected Conservative Councillor asked to rent our rather small, shabby little meeting room for surgeries. Some regarded the Council with deep suspicion and Conservatives as the enemy, but after much debate we agree that the Councillor had a democratic right to hire a room and be available to constituents. Not many came, so we had plenty of time to talk with him. We argued for pedestrianisation of the town centre, cycle lanes, gay rights, smoke-free rooms in pubs and much else. We rarely agreed, but it was a political education on both sides. So when fellow Councillors attacked the resource centre in the Council Chamber, he defended us on the grounds of freedom and when National Front supporters burnt the building down he was first on the scene to offer support.

Sine then I’ve worked with politicians from many parties. Most want the best for their area, people and the country, but with very different convictions about what that means. Most have been willing to listen to a well-made case, and some have changed their minds and even reversed a decision as a result of persistent, patient efforts. Those in power, of whatever party, are more likely to stick to their guns and defend the settled view of their government. But show and tell a politician something that makes a difference or solves a problem about which their view is not yet settled, and they will be your greatest champion. Indeed, if politicians see or hear something that fits their agenda, it may be trumpeted as government policy and rolled out before you know it. Then you watch your cherished project mangled by the political and civil service machine, puffed up in speeches and ground down in bureaucratic detail. So be careful what you wish for, because politicians are more pliable than you might think.

And these early days are the right time to make a good impression and create a warm, working relationship, whatever your polictical differences. Officials provide politicians with data and plans about how to carry out their manifesto commitments and respond to problems. But politicians also depend on the public, pressure groups and the media for information about what matters to people, what can be done about problems and additional information or different interpretations of the data.

So here are some questions and suggestions for things you can do to help them work for you:

Who matters most?
First, who matters most? If you are active in your community, a campaigner or you work for a voluntary organisation, you probably know where your most important political relationships are, but I only found out by accident after several years as a community activist, so here are a few questions to help find out who could help you most:

a) where do your funds come from, who decided what you get, and who makes the policy about how that is made available?

b) which departments or agencies influences the demand and nature of your work?

c) which departments or agencies may have an indirect influence on your work or concerns, such as the Treasury, health, welfare or education.

And d) who do you think might simply be sympathetic to what you do.

Sometimes it is obvious where the main relationship will be, but often you can get more leverage by working with another agency that is indirectly connected to your issue. For example, if you work on domestic violence you main point of contact my be Social Services, but the police, Primary Care Trust and Treasury could all have more influence on what happens. The big investment in Sure Start under the Labour government was a result of someone in the Treasury recognising the long-term benefits of investing in the early years.

Don’t under-estimate the role of chance and personal chemistry in changing a politician’s point of view: who would have thought that Iain Duncan Smith would become a champion of social justice as a result of visiting Easterhouse Estate with Christian Socialist Bob Holman?

Then think about specific ways in which local or national government may help or hinder your work (see 2nd point in previous post, on 17 May). Even if you have no current concerns, it is still useful to develop a relationship with your councillors, MPs and MSPs (Scotland), MLAs (Wales) or MEPs: see About Your Representative for the kind of things they can help you with.

These questions will help you decide who may be particularly useful, in terms of their position in the Council or Government, but don’t neglect your constituency MP, councillors, MSPs, MLA or AM

Find your Councillors, MP, MEPs, MSPs, or Northern Ireland, Welsh and London AMs at http://www.writetothem.com/ and find out more about your MPs interests, views, voting record and who funds them at They Work for You

Remember that it is also important to make constructive relationships with permanent officials and MP’s staff, including Special Advisers who act as sounding boards for Ministers.

Make your position clear
Second, look at how you communicate your core messages about who you are, why you exist, what do, what you offer and what want from others. Many groups and campaigns have lots so much information it overwhelms newcomers, so look at everything again through the eyes of an outsider and the new political class. Go through current leaflets, brochures, documents and your website, weeding out jargon, unnecessary words and language addressed to the previous political regime.

If you don’t have a campaign summary, create a page or two to tell people where you are coming from and where you are going, including:

• why you exist: the problems you address and/or opportunities you create

• what you do, illustrated by a story or picture as well as relevant numbers if possible

• evidence of benefits: what you have achieved and any costed benefits to society

• where you work or who you work with, particularly if you cover a well-defined area or group

• how you came about: your story as a campaign or organisation

• who you are: people, including volunteers, prominent supporters and head person, governing body or executive

• how you are resourced, including funding, voluntary effort and gifts in kind

• what you want: a short specific statement of what you want from government or others: be specific about who has the power and what you want them to do

• potential benefits: what could be achieved as a result of getting what you want

• endorsements: quotes from supporters and beneficiaries

Include in it a one-line summary or slogan to communicate your main purpose or create curiosity.

A short campaign brief or position statement like this is as important for your own people and supporters as for politicians, but it should be seen as a reminder of your main messages, rather than as a means communication – for that you need to speak in person with whoever you want to influence.

Build on common ground – particularly if you are far apart
Third, think about the most positive way to start a relationship with politicians, particularly if you think they have very different views or oppose what you feel strongly about: they work for you and can represent your views, even when they disagree with them (and you could even win them round). You would never start a relationship with an employee by attacking them or making aggressive demands before you meet.

It is almost always more effective to show people something, where they can see, hear and speak with people involved in the issues you care about, so if you can organise a visit, tour or event to which they can come, so much the better. Politicians like to be useful, so give them something to do, like cut a ribbon, launch a project or book, give prizes, give a talk, debate with young people, plant a tree – the more memorable and distinctive the better, but it has to be a positive memory, with a photo opportunity if possible.

Thinks about what you can offer them: every organisations has unique insights and experience which can help a politicians understand an issue. Human stories are often more powerful than dry facts, but back up your stories with powerful, memorable evidence. Many MPs rely on voluntary organisations or even pressure groups for information on specific issues – but you must be reliable, or they will never trust you again. Once they trust you, they will ask you for evidence or arguments when your issues come up, invite you to meetings or advisory groups, all of which can help further your cause. You may also be able to help them speak with constituents they would otherwise have difficulty reaching – think of the popularity of mumsnet before the election.

Don’t be dishonest, flatter to deceive or conceal your views if you have genuine differences, but start by seeking common ground and building bridges rather than barricades. If Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists can work together in a coalition government, then anything is possible in practical politics.

Even for a relatively small organisation, it is worth creating up a database of contacts with politicians and officials you deal with. Keep them informed of what you do, invite them to functions, tell them when you agree with something they’ve said or done, and they will be much more likely to hear when you disagree with them and take action for you when you need them.

But above all, keep sight of your purpose and the reason why you want to politicians to understand what you are about, and empower your members and supporters by sharing this information with them.

Monday, 17 May 2010

Some people make things happen, some watch what happens, while many just don't know what hit them. Community groups and campaigns are about making things happen, which is what practical political education and this blog are about.

One urgent issue facing many communities and learning providers now are the coming cuts in public spending. I've been through many rounds of sharp cuts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, on both sides of the cutting table, so here are a few hard-won survival tips that may be useful now.

My experience of cuts goes back to the mid 1970s when the IMF imposed spending cuts and I was a young, part-time adult / community education tutor and member of the university trade union anti-cuts committee. The cuts united blue and white collar workers on campus for the first time and we met with Shirley Williams, Secretary of State for Education, to stop cuts to the university budget. She listened intensely and described her dilemma of choosing between schools, colleges and universities. The universities won back some cash, but £1m went to the famous adult literacy campaign, On the Move: which goes to show that in the midst of cuts there can be creativity.

In the early 1980s, I lived and worked in the privatising borough of Wandsworth. Comrades on the Trades Council observed that those unions which engaged with the Council over cuts and contracts often gained more than those who went for outright opposition. I was also part of a community study group which compared spending and services in Wandsworth and Lambeth, looking at the complexity of the issues behind the headlines: more money did not always mean more or better services, but small p politics made a big difference in who got what.

After 1986, I was on the other side, as a senior manager for adult education in the ILEA, making deep cuts year after year. It was a terrible, shameful time. Endless large meetings of numerous full-time staff hammered out the criteria and processes for cutting classes by part-time tutors. Looking back, we could have cut management jobs without reducing services for the community. This was one of many times I’ve seen public sector managers subtract value when greater creativity and closer involvement of the community could have aaded value, despite the cuts. It is not easy to see what matters from the inside, when you are working flat out, doing what you believe is right. But self-interest is a powerful distorting lense. Professionals naturally believe they know what's best for people (and sometimes they do), but spending cuts should not be decided by a battle between professionals (managers and tutors in this case). In a democracy we are accountable to the people and a strong, independent Board representing learners and the community could have done a better job, but they relied on us as managers for advice on what to do.

Then in the 1990s I shared responsibility for community education in a London borough. Every year we had to offer up cuts of 10, 20 or even 25%. Then my whole team was made redundant. A few survived by creatively changing what they offered and how it was funded, but most went on to do other things. We all flourished in different ways. It wasn’t the end of the world. Although my income dropped by more than half, the freedom of self-employment brought its own rewards so that in real terms I was better off.

Throughout this time I was involved in community projects or campaigns, at different times seeking funds for new projects and trying to get services to address race equality, the needs of parents, the environment, international development or other issues.

So the following points draw on wide experience of public spending cuts.

Now we know there at least £6bn will be cut this year, an emergency Budget in June and deeper cuts from 1 April 2011. We have been well and truly warned, so now we can prepare.

So what to do?
Spending cuts redistribute roles and responsibilities as well as resources within organisations and sectors as well as between services. Whether this is good or bad depends on how they’re done. Usually some groups suffer while others prosper. During the 1980s, unemployment soared, inequality widened, public services crumbled and almost a generation of young and old were hit particularly hard. But that doesn’t have to happen.

Britain is the world’s sixth richest country. We waste a lot, including many talents of our people, energy, food and the environment by mis-using resources. We need to be more frugal and equitable to live responsibly on this finite planet, where most people live on less than €2 a day, thirty times less than in the UK. We have room for manover.

All public spending decisions are political battles about how to create and distribute income. At times of financial constraint we all need to look more deeply at what, why and how the state does things. This is a chance to stop doing things that cause harm and find better ways of doing good. Defending the status quo is not an option, because saving one thing means sacrificing something else. With an annual short-fall of £163bn, some taxes have to rise, some spending has to go, and many things have to be done differently or not at all. We can choose whether to be part of the decision-making process and promote our priorities, or leave it to someone else and cope with the consequences.

The following tips and questions may help you respond to the deficit. The questions are most relevant for community and voluntary organisations which get some public funds, but they may also be useful for public service users, staff and governing bodies.

1st, Be very clear and precise about your own purpose and priorities:
- What is most important to you, as a person, for your organisation, and as a citizen?
- Does everything your organisation does meet your purpose and priorities, or are there things it could stop doing?
- What do you want from state spending, for yourself, your organisation, the people you serve and the country? Are there things which could benefit from being done differently (or not being done at all)?

2nd, How could spending cuts, tax rises or innovation affect your purpose and priorities?
Speding cuts could affect communities and the voluntary sector in many different ways, such as:
- increased demand for help, if more people loose their jobs, get into debt, loose their home, become depressed, turn to crime, get into drugs, families break up, etc;
- an increase or reduction in volunteers or activists able to do something;
- a cut the income available from public or private sources;
- or an increase in income for grants or contracts to meet specific needs in your community or area of work;
- greater competition or cooperation between individuals or organisations;
- they may stimulate innovation, so that new organisations or technologies emerge which do what you do better, more easily or more cheaply;
Look carefully at what is actually happening in your area of work and how spending cuts could affect it; what are the threats and opportunities for your priorities? Tax rises may also have negative or positive effects on what you do, so you need to look at these as well.

3rd, Be pro-active: don’t wait – find out what might happen, prepare thoroughly and take the initiative.
- Study the thinking and planning in government and agencies that affect your work, purpose and priorities, including the manifestos of the political parties locally and nationally, influential think-tanks, and national pressure groups.
- If you get and want to continue getting public funding, look at which public spending priorities it meets (these are currently expressed by local priorities of the Council, Local Strategic Plan, and Primary Care Trust or national priorities, as set out in the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement, and Public Service Agreements (PSA) indicators (bearing in mind they could be modified or scrapped).
- Join or form coalitions with others who share your purpose and priorities, both locally and nationally;
- Build links across sectors, with trade unions as well as local business, grassroots community activists as well as public services: although you have different interests, priorities and ways of doing things, you probably have a shared interest in wanting the best for your area and may find creative ways of doing things better;
- Get to know and stay in touch with your local councillors, officials and Members of Parliament, make sure they know, understand and support what you do (Contact your Councillors, MP, MEPs, MSPs, or Northern Ireland, Welsh and London AMs through Write to Them)
- Identify possible spending cuts or tax rises which would help your cause, because this could relieve pressure to cut or raise taxes elsewhere: for example, cutting subsidies or increasing taxes on pollution or anti-social behaviour could raise revenue and create benefits.
- Look for ways you could do more for less and meet needs more creatively.
- If you represent a coalition or people who could be seriously affectived by the budget, prepare a detailed budget submission to make your case for specific areas of spending, cuts tax rises, tax cuts or innovation, and get it to the people making the decisions which affect you (see next point) as soon as possible.
- Don't get sucked into competition with the public sector: co-operation can serve the public better if we focus on meeting needs, using resources better and enabling people to take control over their lives.
- Campaign for your specific aims and priorities, not against cuts: be specific about its benefits and how it contributes to the objectives of the government, department or agency the funding comes from.
The coalition government has made a lot of progressive commitments, which you

4th, Get as close as you can to the cutting table: for every budget line there is an official and politician responsible who will make the incision. Find out who they are, what pressures are on them, what are their interests and priorities, and how could you help: they may welcome pressure to defend things they also believe in.

All spending cuts involve a twin track - the big, broad headline decisions at a national or town-hall level, or the specific details which affect your area. It is worth keeping an eye on both, but focusing on the one which will have most effect on what you do. National alliances and pressure groups can focus on the big picture, but they are also stronger when they draw on local activists and examples. At a local level it is often easier to know who is actually making decisions and to be creative about where the money comes from. For example, if health spending is ring-fenced, then look at the health benefits of your work and you could get extra funding from the Primary Care Trust. For example, during the 1980s, local authorities cut youth services but some police forces funded activities for young people because they helped with crime prevention. Be creative.

Several sets of officials and politicians are usually involved in any specific decision:
- a service manager, politicians or a voluntary board directly involved, usually cutting under pressure from above;
- senior figures locally or nationally who set the budget for services, including the one that concerns you
- Finance Department or Treasury which imposes the overall budget on everyone and tries to balance the books, and the new Office of Budget Responsibility which will provide independent analysis of public spending..

5th, be creative: there are many different ways of meeting the threat of cuts – fight, flight or insight:
you can
- defend the status quo
- propose alternative cuts and or tax rises
- diversify or seek alternative funding
- do things differently

A ‘whole systems’ approach to improving public services while often reducing costs by putting users at the centre and empowering staff to respond to demand. For more details visit The Systems Thinking Review or read John Seddon's book, Systems Thinking in the Public Sector, or The Illusion of Control from SOLACE.

6th, always have a fall back (or two): when seas are rough, fisher folk mend their nets

What’s your contingency plan if your budget is cut completely? Do you seek a merger, go completely voluntary, pull back to a tiny core of self-funding activities or develop new, income-generating activities?
If you re-trench, how can you retain and develop the skills, tacit knowledge, relationships and potential to grow again when things improve.

7th, take people with you: when you have difficult choices to make, let people know what’s happening, set out the options and criteria for making difficult decisions (whether it is to a fight a particular cut or to pass it on), and invite innovation.

Austerity is often a time of innovation. Now is the time to find new, better, smarter ways of doing things. Even without the deficit, demand for public spending is rising – decent pensions for all, support for carers, health care and many tough social problems urgently need more attention. Ultimately the only way to make the money go round is to use it smarter. That's how we make things happen, even at a time of spending cuts.

Thursday, 13 May 2010

We accept David Cameron’s invitation to join the Government of Britain as an Unofficial Ministry of Practical Political Education (UMOPPE, may be pronounced umph). The Ministry will not take any party line, but will be guided by Nolan’s seven principles of public life as essential elements of practical politics: accountability, honesty, integrity, leadership, objectivity, openness and selflessness , as well as the six principles of practical political education:

1. pragmatic: start from where people are and help them achieve what they want;

Society benefits from effective participation by all citizens in the political process. When some groups are excluded or neglected, their difficulities may become a burden on society or erupt in violence. The better off can pay for lobbyists, campaigners and pressure groups to promote their interests, but the poor, marginalised and disaffected also need an effective voice. Learning how to organise as citizens and influence decision is therefore essential for a truly democratic society.

David Cameron has said he will be honest about what government can achieve and that “real change comes when the people are inspired and mobilised, when millions are fired up to play a part in the nation’s future.”

People are more likely to be fired up when there is hope and real potential to make a difference, or when there is anger, a sense of injustice.

Three simple things which government can do to enable people to mobilise effectively are to:

encourage and fund adult, community, further and informal education providers to run accessible and affordable practical political education so that all citizens can understand how the system works, get their voice heard and influence decisions;

support community organisations, learning providers and local authorities set up local, independent ‘democracy hubs’ to provide information, training and support for effective participation in decision-making at all levels (thus carrying out the Duty to Promote Democracy in a more creative and cost effective ways);

encourage all civil servants to become “civic servants”, in the words of the Conservative Party manifesto, so that they can respond positively to challenges from citizens and provide independent, impartial advice on how citizens can influence the political process better.

We welcome David Cameron’s letter to the Democracy Matters Alliance at the start of the election, and we will following this up with national and local government in due course (watch this space).

Meanwhile, I suggest three priorities for civil society and community educators over the coming year:

find creative and imaginative ways of helping local communities and vulnerable groups to really understand what’s happening and learn how to influence decisions about spending, saving, taxation and innovation in services that concern them;

work together to share experience, skills, knowledge and learning materials to improve practical political education, using this website as a resource centre;

re-think assumptions and pre-conceptions and look carefully at what is actually happening, listen carefully to what people are actually feeling; and study how our global political economy actually works, in your local area, region or nation, the UK, Europe and across the world.

The UK is the world’s sixth richest country. It is not short of money. We spend more on pets and entertainment than most countries can spend on food, health care and education. The question is, how do we as a society create wealth, raise taxes and distribute income in ways that everyone can flourish without wasting our planet. These are difficult political questions, about which all citizens can have a say.

This Unofficial Ministry of Practical Political Education has no paid staff, head quarters, budgets or targets. We rely on the collective effort and inspiration of our members to make things happen – with added umph. But we are very happy to be an unruly and responsible part of the Government of Britain.

Sunday, 9 May 2010

Voters didn’t trust any party to govern alone and have sent MPs back to fix our broken political system. But it will take time to learn how to govern when no party has total control, and longer to sort out our constitution. Meanwhile, the City threatens to overrule the electorate. Our archaic voting system can’t compete with the constant poll of fund managers who promise retribution on any government which does not bow to their demands. As John Cridland, CBI deputy-director general, has warned “we are not in control of our destiny.”

So how can we gain control of our destiny, if at all?

Adair Turner, head of the Financial Service Authority, pointed out that “British citizens will be burdened for many years with either higher taxes or cuts in public services because of an economic crisis … cooked up in trading rooms where … many people earned annual bonuses equal to a lifetime’s earning of some of those now suffering the consequences.”

This election has pushed our voting system up the political agenda, but it is only one of many flaws in our democratic systems. The unaccountable power of finance is perhaps the greatest of these. Most people and politicians don’t really know how it works, so we also need to understand it better. At a local level, most of our public institutions and neighbourhoods are largely unaccountable to the people they serve – a theme of David Cameron’s Big Society which deserves more attention than it got – while local government is largely remote and unresponsive; the relationship between nations, regions and great cities of the United Kingdom is fractured and unstable; while the governance of Europe and the world cannot cope with the urgent demands of global interdependence. These are all important themes for practical politics and this blog.

We are at the foothills of immense constitutional change. Devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London started the process at home, while the Maastricht Treaty, WTO, UN Millennium Summit and G20 have begun a slow movement to a new global settlement. Although the surging economic strength of China, India and Brazil will play a bigger role in this settlement than our domestic politics, whom we send to the World Bank, IMF, Bank of International Settlements, UN Security Council and other institutions of global governance matters, because the UK still has a seat at the top table. Our broken politics will not be fixed until we also address the accountability of the City and financial system, which will ultimately be done through global agreement.

Who we send to represent us in global politics is decided by whoever commands the British Parliament.

So first I want to reflect on the general election result of 2010. It is as if people have sussed that one party rule makes governments arrogant and unresponsive. The system that gave us a one party state supported by less than a quarter of the electorate is bust. The old politics of arithmetic, in which numbers were added up to anoint an elected dictatorship, in Lord Hailsham’s famous phrase, are over. Jonathan Bartley of Ekklesia described our electoral system as immoral, a travesty worse than the expenses scandal. Many groups have come together in a movement to ‘take back parliament. The call for democratic reform has come alive again.

Some still hark for “strong, decisive government”, forgetting the many costly mistakes made by every government in its exercise of sovereign power. All parties are covert coalitions. The confident front of collective leadership always hides dirty deals between party factions – over Europe, electoral reform, pensions, unions and more. A multi-polar parliament moves the veil out from the internal politics of the ruling party and civil service out to a wider arena of inter-party politics. This is still far from open democracy, but it should lead to better decision-making as the assumptions of one party are tested against another. Our political leaders are at least talking to each other, testing how their mandates from the people and political philosophy can work together to fix our political system and govern effectively at the same time. But all members of parliament should also be involved in this process before too long.
Those of us far outside the charmed circles of inter-party politics have an important role in fixing our broken political system:

- join the movement to Take Back Parliament: sign up, protest in Parliament Square, London, from 2pm on Saturday 15th May, and get involved in the debate about constitutional reform (or learn more about it if you are unconvinced);

- encourage people to get involved in practical politics, through a party, pressure group or campaign to make sure the politics system addresses issues that concern you;

- and join the dots between our local politics and the global system.

Voters who didn’t trust any party to govern alone cannot walk away and leave MPs to clean up the mess. We all share a responsibility to fix our broken political system. Whatever issues we care about, from traffic in our neighbourhood to democratic deficit in the absolute power of money markets over elected governments, we cannot sort them out through a broken politics.

Friday, 7 May 2010

No sooner had the polls closed than Unlock Democracy, POWER2010, Vote for a Change and a host of other organisations launched a petition for electoral reform, at www.takebackparliament.com, and a rally at Trafalgar Square at 2pm on Saturday 8 May. Peter Facey, Director of Unlock Democracy (and a member of the Democracy Matters Alliance) is hopeful: “The good news is, while the election result has never been more ridiculous, we've never had a better chance to change it. No politician can now pretend that our voting system is in any way defensible; we just have to make sure now that they can no longer pretend it isn't an issue.”

Now is the time to learn practical politics, because that’s how we the people will get the government we deserve.

What actually happens after this election depends on a ceaseless dance between money markets, government departments, parliament, press, business, pressure groups, new technology, chance and us, the citizens. There are dire predictions of austerity, savage cuts to public services, double dip recession and soaring unemployment. But it needn’t be that way. Everything depends on political decisions yet to come.

Britain is the world’s sixth richest country. How we create and distribute poverty or wealth depends on political decisions.

As a new government emerges from its party chrysalis to take the wings of power, let’s remember that most people voted for other parties, that it does not represent the country, and that a great deal of detailed decision-making remains to be done.

Citizens can have a more effective say in what happens, if they know how the system works and have the confidence, contacts and persistence to influence decisions.

This blog will reflect on events, social problems and campaigns to learn how all citizens, including the most marginalised and disenfranchised, can have a stronger and more effective voice in how the country is run.